Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: The primary kingdoms

1977/11/01 by Carl R. Woese, George E. Fox · 4,066 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · #Archaea #Bacteria #Biology #Computational biology #Enzyme Production and Characterization #Evolutionary biology #Gene #Genetics #Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies #Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology #Peptide sequence #Phylogenetic tree #Phylogenetics #Protein primary structure #Ribosomal RNA

paper · open access · doi:10.1073/pnas.74.11.5088

published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 74(11), 5088-5090 (National Academy of Sciences)

openalex publication_date 1977/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

A phylogenetic analysis based upon ribosomal RNA sequence characterization reveals that living systems represent one of three aboriginal lines of descent: (i) the eubacteria, comprising all typical bacteria; (ii) the archaebacteria, containing methanogenic bacteria; and (iii) the urkaryotes, now represented in the cytoplasmic component of eukaryotic cells.

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